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Germany's Economic Unification: An Assessment after Ten Years

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Author Info
Hans-Werner Sinn

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Abstract

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real incomes in the east have now reached the western level, and investment per capita has been much higher than in the west. However, every third deutschmark spent in the east has been coming from the west, investment in equipment has fallen below the west German per capita level, and convergence seems to have come to a halt at an overall labor productivity of only 55% of west Germany. Excessively high wages coupled with investment incentives that made the cost of capital negative rank high among the possible explanations. This paper describes reforms of the labor market that could help to make convergence continue.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7586.

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Date of creation: Mar 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7586

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H0 - Public Economics - - General
O52 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Wolfgang Keller, 1997. "From Socialist Showcase to Mezzogiorno? Lessons on the Role of Technical Change from East Germany's Post-World War II Growth Performance," NBER Working Papers 6079, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Boltho, Andrea & Carlin, Wendy & Scaramozzino, Pasquale, 1996. "Will East Germany Become a New Mezzogiorno?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1256, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Franz, Wolfgang & Steiner, Viktor, 1999. "Wages in the East German transition process : facts and explanations," ZEW Discussion Papers 99-40, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  4. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1999. "EU Enlargement, Migration and Lessons from German Unification," CEPR Discussion Papers 2174, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1995. "Staggering along: wages policy and investment support in East Germany," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(4), pages 403-426, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. George A. Akerlof & Andrew K. Rose & Janet L. Yellen & Helga Hessenius, 1991. "East Germany in from the Cold: The Economic Aftermath of Currency Union," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1991-1), pages 1-106. [Downloadable!]
  7. Henning Klodt, 1999. "Industrial Policy and the East German Productivity Puzzle," Kiel Working Papers 943, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  8. Wolfgang Nierhaus, 1999. "Höhere Rentenanpassung in Ostdeutschland erforderlich?," Ifo Schnelldienst, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 52(19), pages 20-24, October.
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  1. Sebastián Claro, 2002. "On the Costs and Effectiveness of Tarjeting State Employment: Germany in the 1990s and China in the 2000s," Documentos de Trabajo 218, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  2. Erich Gundlach, 2003. "Growth Effects of EU Membership: The Case of East Germany," Empirica, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 237-270, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Harald Uhlig, 2008. "The Slow Decline of East Germany," NBER Working Papers 14553, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Stephen Redding & Daniel M. Sturm, 2005. "The Costs of Remoteness: Evidence from German Division and Reunification," CEP Discussion Papers dp0688, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Hans-Werner Sinn & Frank Westermann, 2001. "Two Mezzogiornos," NBER Working Papers 8125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Sebastián Claro, 2005. "How Uncompetitive is the State-Owned Industrial Sector in China," Documentos de Trabajo 305, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  7. Sebastián Claro, 2004. "Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Trade Liberalization," Documentos de Trabajo 265, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  8. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2008. "Escaping the Unemployment Trap: The Case of East Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3681, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  9. Kilin F.S., 2003. "Analysis of convergence process of East German economy on the base of a two-region growth model," GE, Growth, Math methods 0304002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  10. Dennis J. Snower & Christian Merkl, 2006. "The Caring Hand that Cripples: The East German Labor Market After Reunification (Detailed Version)," IZA Discussion Papers 2066, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Harald Uhlig, 2007. "Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification," Kiel Working Papers 1311, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm & Steven Brakman, 2003. "The Spatial Distribution of Wages: Estimating the Helpman-Hanson model for Germany," Working Papers 03-08, Utrecht School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Komlos, John & Kriwy, Peter, 2003. "The Biological Standard of Living in the two Germanies," Discussion Papers in Economics 55, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Christian Merkl & Dennis J. Snower, 2007. "Escaping the Unemployment Trap — The Case of East Germany," Kiel Working Papers 1309, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  15. Harald Simons, 2007. "Transfers, non-tradable goods and a distorted economy in eastern Germany," FEMM Working Papers 07002, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management. [Downloadable!]
  16. Holger Strulik, 2004. "A Distributional Theory of Government Growth," Discussion Papers 04-26, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Ignacio Ortuño Ortín & Klaus Desmet, 2006. "Rational Underdevelopment," Working Papers. Serie AD 2006-12, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie). [Downloadable!]
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  18. Frank Heiland, 2004. "Trends in East-West German Migration from 1989 to 2002," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 11(7), pages 173-194, September. [Downloadable!]
  19. Boldrin, Michele & Canova, Fabio, 2003. "Regional Policies and EU Enlargement," CEPR Discussion Papers 3744, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2006. "The Caring Hand that Cripples: The East German Labour Market after Reunification," CEPR Discussion Papers 5656, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Claudia M. Buch & Farid Toubal, 2007. "Openness and Growth: The Long Shadow of the Berlin Wall," IAW Discussion Papers 31, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW). [Downloadable!]
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